The Elk Fence Distillery was conceived in West Marin. It’s run by two individuals who stay there and its title is a reference to the Tomales Level “elk fence” bordering a subject the place they as soon as grew barley. It’s about as West Marin as you may get, aside from one factor: It’s in Santa Rosa.
When co-founders and co-distillers Gail Coppinger and Scott Woodson initially went to the Marin Civic Heart and requested about what it will take to open a distillery in Marin County, they have been met with clean stares. Though it wasn’t capable of work out in Marin, they have been nonetheless capable of make their goals come true.
The 2 met working within the trades — Coppinger is a shingler, and Woodson is a painter — and bonded over his love of homebrewing and her love of cooking (she’s a former skilled prepare dinner). One summer time night time in 2014, they bought collectively in Woodson’s storage in Inverness.
“We made a mash collectively,” says Coppinger, of Level Reyes Station. “I beloved the odor and the chemistry.”
“What's going on right here?” she requested herself. “I couldn’t consider what was taking place.”
By that point, Woodson, a former barley grower, had already began to look past brewing.
“I bought form of tired of it,” he says. “So, I began studying about distilling and I spotted that you may’t do a distillery in your storage. You’d go to jail. You may make beer and wine in your storage, however you'll be able to’t distill.”
The 2 of them have been intrigued.
“We have been like new child infants, we knew nothing,” Coppinger says. “We form of dove in and stated that we have been going to place a down cost on a nonetheless system. So, we did.”
They ordered a hybrid double pot nonetheless from Trident Stills in Etna, Maine, attended tutorials in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, studied up on distilling and started in search of a spot to place it. Marin was out, in order that they seemed first within the East Bay earlier than selecting a constructing in Santa Rosa.
“We did have a time restrict; the gear was being shipped to us. And we higher have a spot to maintain it,” Coppinger says. “You possibly can’t get a license till you lease a location, that’s the distinction between each different enterprise and distillation. You have to have a location first and then you definately fill out the kinds. You possibly can’t do it beforehand.”
The price for a sort 4 “producer of distilled spirits” license is a mere $990 whereas an on-premise, full-liquor “gross sales” license can run tens of hundreds of dollars. However the license is just not the place the funding lies.
“Getting the constructing turned out to be the straightforward half,” Coppinger says. “The Tubbs Hearth had simply occurred once we have been beginning our build-out. We needed to get our plans signed off by the fireplace division. They held us up for 18 months.”
A 12 months and a half of lease on a constructing they couldn’t use.
“The fireplace division is severe about what you might be producing. And you might be producing a high-proof distillate and so they need to make sure that everyone seems to be protected — as they need to,” Coppinger says.
They bought their ultimate inspection and opened the doorways on March 14, 2020, simply as COVID hit.
However all of that's within the rear view mirror now. Within the intervening years, they started producing 4 merchandise: a vodka ($35), a 90-proof gin ($50), a barrel-aged gin ($50) and a 2-year-old Briny Deep unfiltered single-malt whiskey ($140), all produced from domestically sourced barley. Elk Fence is now in 30 totally different places all through California, and so they just lately positioned third within the USA Right now 10Best’s listing of greatest new craft distilleries.
In a super-saturated subject of small-batch spirits, Elk Fence’s merchandise stand out. Their White Elk vodka is 90 proof, 10 proof increased than nearly each different vodka in the marketplace. Their Fir Prime gin incorporates solely three botanicals apart from the requisite juniper (coriander, tangerine peel and grapefruit peel) and their whiskey is aged two years not within the closely charred barrels sometimes used for American whiskey, however in lighter “toasted” barrels used for wine.
“Char seals the barrel, which makes it more durable for the spirit to age out,” Woodson says. “It takes out impurities however on the similar time, it’s taking plenty of actually good flavors out, so if you're distilling rather well, you don’t need taste to be taken out by the barrel.”
Woodson additionally contends that many gins are overly difficult. “Sixteen botanicals aren’t unusual, however your mouth can’t break that down. Most individuals can barely pull out two or three various things out of one thing.”
As for his or her vodka, “We did it at 90 as a result of we wished it to carry as much as ice in a martini. Not get so diluted that you just really feel like you aren't tasting it,” Coppinger says. “Typically after they shake and so they pour, martinis is usually a little bit watery, and we didn’t need that.”
“Most all the pieces in distilling is science: time and temperature,” Woodson provides. “When you find yourself making your cuts (for whiskey), there’s not a finite line between the heads and the hearts and the hearts and the tails. Someplace in there's a lot that occurs.”
And that's the place the artwork of distilling is available in. Elk Fence does what known as “deep reducing.”
“We're most likely throwing out some good alcohol, however we’d moderately have a extremely super-pure product than have something in there we don’t like,” Woodson says.
This ends in a deeply full-flavored whiskey actually oozing spice and caramel. It actually isn’t rye, bourbon or wheat. And, at that worth, it isn’t for the novice both, however then once more, nice whiskeys seldom are.
“We haven’t paid ourselves a dime but,” Woodson says. “It’s a labor of affection at this level.”
Elk Fence’s tasting room is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 464 Kenwood Courtroom in Santa Rosa. And they are going to be giving out samples from 4 to six p.m. Friday at Classic Wine & Spirits at 82 Throckmorton Ave. in Mill Valley. Extra data might be discovered at elkfencedistillery.com or on Instagram @elkfencedistillery.
Jeff Burkhart is the writer of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Actual Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen within the NY Instances) and an award-winning bartender at an area restaurant. Comply with him at jeffburkhart.internet and call him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com